Myanmar's detained former ​leader and longtime democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in public, providing the first sign of life from the Nobel Peace Prize winner since a letter to her son two and a half years ago. Suu Kyi met with a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross after growing concerns about the health of the 81-year-old. Myanmar collapsed into civil war in early 2021 after the military toppled a democratically elected government led by Suu Kyi. The junta’s decision to allow the meeting and release photos of it may indicate a desire to end its diplomatic isolation.

More from BBC here.

Episode 10 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, we were joined from the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Dr. Abdou Sebushishe of the International Medical Corps. Dr. Abdou gave us an update from the frontlines, told us personal stories of people who have contracted the virus and reflected on his experiences as a Congolese doctor facing down an outbreak in his own community.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Pakistan

A suspected suicide bomber has killed at least 17 people outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan, police said, as the country grapples with increasing insecurity. Locals were holding a pro-police rally at the time, but it was not immediately clear whether it was the intended target. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan armed group claimed responsibility in a statement. Attacks on police and the military have escalated sharply in recent months in Pakistan’s border areas. The government in Islamabad blames the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan for the attacks and says it is harboring armed groups. The Taliban denies that.

More from Reuters here.

Singapore

British band Massive Attack has said members were detained in Singapore and “isolated and separately questioned” after two of the group unfurled a Palestinian flag at a concert last week. In a statement on Instagram, the band said several members had their hotel rooms searched and passports confiscated. Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall held the flag over their heads as the crowd chanted “Free Palestine.” Singapore does not allow the display of foreign emblems, and the Palestinian flag is considered especially sensitive due to a significant Muslim minority. “We did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognized by 157 countries would violate any law,” the band said.

More from NBC here.

The Russian government-controlled Africa Corps paramilitary group killed eight civilians, including three children, in an airstrike on a village in Mali, a rights group said today. An aircraft identified as a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 struck Kyrnia twice on June 15, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. One strike hit the home of the village chief, killing his wife and three children, and another landed on a cattle market and killed four men. No fighters from the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin armed group, which is at war with Mali’s government and has controlled the village for six years, were reported among the dead. Mali has forged a close alliance with Russia since a military junta took power in a coup in 2021 and cut most ties with former colonial power France.

More from AP here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Indonesia

Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has said that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ​wants him to visit North Korea to explore talks between Pyongyang and Seoul. "During my last visit to South Korea, their ​president asked me if I could visit North Korea to open ​some kind of a dialogue. I told him, with all due respect and willingness, if you asked me to, I would go," he said. Lee’s office did not comment. Indonesia traditionally pursues a non-aligned foreign policy and Prabowo has offered himself as a mediator in several conflicts.

More from Reuters here.

Naoero

You’d be forgiven for never hearing of Naoero. That’s because the Pacific island nation of Nauru reclaimed it as its name today. The name Nauru was given to the island by European colonizers because they couldn’t pronounce Naoero. Yes, really. The country will now be called the Republic of Naoero, with the short form Naoero, and citizens will be referred to as “dei-Naoero.” The government said it had notified international organisations and that the transition process was underway. The Republic of Naoero is the world’s third-smallest nation, after Vatican City and Monaco, with a population of about 12,000 people.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Veteran Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who collapsed in court yesterday, is unconscious and in intensive care, according to his wife. Besigye is standing trial for treason and has been in custody since November 2024, when he was detained in Kenya and repatriated to Uganda. The 70-year-old has stood against longtime President Yoweri Museveni in four presidential elections and has been arrested numerous times during his career. Museveni, who is 81 and has been in power since 1986, was declared winner of Uganda’s latest election in January. His main rival, Bobi Wine, rejected the results and fled to the U.S. after the army chief, who is also Museveni’s son, threatened his life.

More from Reuters here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Kuwait

Kuwait has stripped six more people of citizenship, including critics and a prominent cleric, as a campaign that has revoked the nationality of tens of thousands of people continues. Shia cleric Hussein al-Maatouq and well-known activist Lulwa Al-Hussainan, who has herself spoken out against citizenship revocation, were among those stripped. Kuwait says it is targeting fraudulent citizenships and violations of nationality laws, but rights groups say the nationality review is weaponized against opponents and public figures.

More from the New Arab here.

Gaza

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least four people over the last 24 hours, including two children, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said. A man and an eight-year-old child were killed in the city of Khan Younis, Reuters reported. In a separate incident, an 18-month-old baby was killed when an air strike hit a house, and elsewhere a man was killed in an attack while riding a bicycle. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,900 wounded in Israeli ceasefire violations since a truce was agreed with Hamas in October.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Five Ethiopians have been executed in Saudi Arabia on drug-related charges, according to the interior ministry, after a trial that human rights groups said did not follow due process and during which the accused were denied translation. “Saudi authorities are executing marginalized Ethiopian migrants after court hearings that sometimes barely last a few minutes without a lawyer or a translator,” Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. The New York-based rights group says at least 17 Ethiopian nationals have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of 2026, all on drug-related charges. Riyadh is one of the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty.

More from HRW here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

DR Congo

Thousands of people in the cities of Goma and Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have taken to the streets to protest proposed constitutional changes that would allow President Felix Tshisekedi to run for a third term. Both cities are controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group, and a ​government spokesperson accused the rebels of forcing residents to demonstrate. Goma and Bukavu are in the DRC’s eastern region, which is currently the center of the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in recorded history. The demonstrations took place under police supervision, locals said, despite a ban on gatherings introduced ⁠to ​curb the spread of the virus. Security forces have broken up opposition-led protests against the proposals in the capital Kinshasa.

More from Reuters here.

NB: Proximities has published deep dives on the Ebola outbreak here and here.

Syria

A fringe group of Israeli settlers has been making incursions into southern Syria in an attempt to establish settlements. Though the Israeli army has occupied southern Syria for more than a year, it is believed to be the first time civilians have tried to settle the area. Groups with members numbering in the dozens are reported to have tried to cross the border every few days in recent weeks. The wider settler movement, centered on the illegally occupied West Bank, enjoys strong support from members of Israel’s far-right government, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused by the opposition and rights groups of turning a blind eye to settler violence against Palestinians.

More from AP here.

I hope you’re well. It’s now a year since Proximities relaunched so a lot of you are receiving (or have already received) a subscription renewal reminder.

So I wanted to reach out to say thank you for supporting me through this first year. As a freelancer, your subscriptions help me justify the time I spend researching and writing …

Read more

Keiko Fujimori will be sworn in as Peru's president today, becoming the country’s 10th leader since 2016 after a decade of political turmoil. Her election underlines a continued rightward shift in Latin America, with a string of recently elected conservative leaders who advocate closer ties to U.S. President Donald Trump and who have vowed to crack down on crime. Fujimori, 51, is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, a divisive figure who dominated Peruvian politics in the 1990s before being jailed for human rights abuses. In previous elections, she distanced herself from his legacy but this time she embraced it and recast herself as a leader who would govern in her father’s manner.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

On this week’s episode, I’ll be joined by a doctor who is currently working on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Chad

Chad has become the latest in a string of countries to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump escalates a pressure campaign against the court. Chad’s military government announced it had formally begun the process to withdraw from the ICC, which prosecutes war crimes and other violations of humanitarian law and is based in The Hague in the Netherlands. It becomes the fifth African country to turn its back on the court in recent months. Though the U.S. has never joined the ICC and has expressed long-running animosity toward it, the hostility grew when the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant in 2024.

More from Al Jazeera here.

South Africa-Nigeria

Nigeria has said that South Africa plans to bring to justice those responsible for a spate of attacks against immigrants after relations between the two sharply soured when large numbers of Nigerians were targeted. Anti-immigration marches and vigilante attacks on foreigners were considered so extreme that Nigeria offered voluntary repatriation for its citizens, flying about 1,490 people out. The commitment from South Africa, which came after talks in Abuja between Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, and South ​African International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, may cool increasingly bellicose rhetoric from Africa’s two biggest economies.

More from Reuters here.

I last wrote a deep dive on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) just after the epidemic was formally declared in May.

At the time, there had been more than 900 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. I remember expressing hope in that first piece that it could be contained quickly. But that hasn’t happened and things are deteriorating.

Let’s be clear: it’s the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, and through no fault of the brave medics leading the effort, the response is struggling.

A handful of excellent Western correspondents have travelled to the epicenter, but they’re an exception, and the story deserves more coverage.

A Q&A on the latest developments below. The first deep dive is more explanatory, so they might work as a pairing if you want a complete picture.

Also, on this week’s Proximities podcast, I’ll be joined by a doctor who is working on the frontlines in Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Bests,

Barry.

NB: A reminder for newer subscribers that you can access an archive of almost 40 deep dives here, most of them evergreen.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Where does the outbreak stand now?

It’s not good. New figures yesterday showed that there have now been 3,200 confirmed cases and 1,405 of those ended in death. It should be noted, though, that experts think the true extent is even worse than that.

“The scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found,” WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu said last week.

Can you put those numbers in context?

The simplest way I can do that - and this is startling - is to compare it to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, the worst in history. More than 28,000 people were eventually infected, and a truly horrible 11,310 died.

It took eight months for the deaths back then to pass 1,000.

We’ve surpassed that milestone in just 10 weeks in DRC.

Read more

Two mosques were set on fire by Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank overnight after a series of recent attacks. The mosques, in the villages of Qusra and Kour, were badly damaged. In Qusra, the attackers spray-painted “revenge Benayahu,” referring to an Israeli soldier, also a settler, who was killed on Friday. They also wrote “the land of Israel is redeemed with blood.” Separately, five vehicles were set ablaze in the village of Beitillu, and tractors and trucks were torched elsewhere. The Israeli opposition, Palestinian groups and international human rights organizations accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of turning a blind eye to settler attacks against Palestinians.

More from AP here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast, a conversation with journalists Zahra Joya and Amie Ferris-Rotman about their new book “The Vanishing Girl of Kabul,” is now live. This one was truly an honor for me. Zahra is one of the world’s most courageous journalists and the book is deeply moving, and deeply important.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Myanmar

Myanmar’s army has sharply stepped up attacks against civilians since a new military chief took over in March, according to a global war monitor. Days before the previous commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, was named president in a bogus election, he appointed longtime loyalist Ye Win Oo as his successor. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) said the onslaught against civilians was a direct result of new tactics employed by Ye Win Oo. Myanmar descended into civil war in February 2021 after the military toppled a democratically elected government. At least 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, and millions have been forced out of their homes.

More from ACLED here.

North Korea

The daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accompanied him to an annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the ​Korean War armistice for the first time. The girl, known as Ju Ae, is believed to be 13 years old but North Korean state media has never released those details. South Korean intelligence agencies believe that Ju Ae, who increasingly appears in public, has been chosen as her father’s successor. In March, state media published images of her driving a tank, and she has previously been photographed firing a rifle and a handgun.

More from Reuters here.

The U.N. food agency (WFP) warned today that it may have to make more cuts to aid in Gaza, where about 70 percent of the population relies on its help, as it appealed for more donor money. "Without sufficient funding, we will be forced to scale back assistance for people who depend on it ‌for ⁠survival," Ross Smith, WFP director of emergency preparedness and response, said. The comments came after the Integrated Food Security Phase ​Classification, the world’s leading hunger monitor, said more than two-thirds of people in Gaza could face acute ​hunger by the end of the year. The Israeli government continues to impose severe restrictions on the amount of aid that can enter the Palestinian enclave.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast, a conversation with journalists Zahra Joya and Amie Ferris-Rotman about their new book “The Vanishing Girl of Kabul,” is now live. This one was truly an honor for me. Zahra is one of the world’s most courageous journalists and the book is deeply moving, and deeply important.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s President Mohammed Shahabuddin has resigned halfway into his term, citing health reasons amid suspicions he was forced out. Shahabuddin was appointed during the rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled after street protests in 2024. After a period of transitional government, an administration headed by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman came to power in February. Local media reported that Shahabuddin was pressured to step down over allegations that he spoke to Hasina by phone when he visited London for medical treatment in May. Hasina, who is in exile in India, has vowed to return to Bangladesh this year despite being handed a death sentence in absentia.

More from AP here.

Mali

Mali’s government has rejected reports that the U.S. is about to intervene in its fight against the powerful Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) armed group. The Washington Post reported, citing current and former U.S. officials, that the Trump administration was considering strikes against the al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM. “We have no confirmation and no official statement from the United States or U.S. officials on this matter,” Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said, adding he had only heard about it from the media. “I can assure you that Mali is not sitting idly by, waiting for others to come and solve our problem.”

More from Africa News here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast is now live.

In this week's episode, we're joined by Zahra Joya and Amie Ferris-Rotman, who have co-authored a new book, "The Vanishing Girl of Kabul."

The book tells the remarkable story of Zahra's determined and fearless journey into journalism in a patriarchal society, which resulted in her establishing Rukhshana Media one of Afghanistan's first female-led newsrooms.

Zahra was forced to flee her country after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and threatened her life and the lives of other female journalists. But she continues to run Rukhshana Media from exile in London, relying on a brave group of women reporting underground in Afghanistan.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Please do like, subscribe, comment or rate depending on your platform. It really does help the stories get out there.

All bests,

Barry.

Two Ghanaian nationals have petitioned the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa. A wave of anti-immigrant demonstrations in recent months has often turned violent and there has been a spate of attacks on foreigners, leading to African countries, including Ghana, evacuating citizens. Several people from African nations have been killed in the violence, while others have been beaten or burned out of their homes and businesses. The petition, seen by Reuters, alleges a "pattern ​of widespread and systematic attacks" and accuses the government of failing to stop the violence. In response to Reuters, a spokesperson for South Africa's foreign ministry called the petition opportunistic.

More from Reuters here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Mexico

Mexican journalist Francisco Leyva has been shot dead in the state of Oaxaca, the state's ​Attorney General's Office said, making him the fourth journalist to be murdered in the country since June. Leyva, 60, was known for scathing columns in which he criticised Oaxacan authorities, and for reporting on government corruption and violence linked to ​organized crime. “He was a journalist critical of ​our government, like many other journalists who exercise their right every day to question, point out issues, and freely express their opinions,” Oaxaca Governor Salomon ​Jara wrote on social media. Mexico is considered the most dangerous country in the world for journalists outside of active war zones.

More from El Pais here.

India

Thousands of young demonstrators have begun a sit-in on the streets of India’s capital New Delhi as their “Cockroach” movement continues to present the biggest challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term. What began as a satirical online campaign has grown into a genuine force, with young people angry over alleged leaks in some of the country’s famously competitive exams for medical colleges and government jobs. The leaks are a powerful symbol of overarching frustration for the country’s youth and the movement appears to be expanding beyond exam grievances. Under pressure, Modi today announced fast-track courts to handle examination paper leak cases. “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!” he wrote on X.

More from AP here.

The death toll from the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record has risen to almost 1,000 people, according to officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). DRC’s National Institute of Public Health said today that 999 deaths have been confirmed since the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus was declared in May. Officials said that as of Monday, 2,473 cases had been recorded and at least 737 patients are currently in hospital. The U.N. health agency says the true scale of the crisis ⁠is at least ⁠2 to 4 times higher than the number of documented cases. The response to the emergency has been hampered by striking health workers and the outbreak epicentre’s location in a conflict zone.

More from AP here.

Episode 8 of the Proximities podcast, a discussion I had on the UK’s Novara Live show about the risk of the world standing by and watching another massacre unfold in Sudan, is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Coming later this week: how the women of Afghanistan are resisting the Taliban.

Pakistan

Pakistani airstrikes on a drug rehabilitation center in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul should be investigated as a war crime, rights group Amnesty International said today. The strikes in March killed at least 269 ​civilians and injured 122, according to the United Nations Assistance ​Mission in Afghanistan. Amnesty said it “found no evidence” that the Omid Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre had any military purpose, and that the strikes violated international law, which protects healthcare facilities. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban denies.

More from Reuters here.

Cameroon

Cameroon’s ruling party is to hold a rare meeting of senior leaders as public criticism of aging President Paul Biya’s 45-day absence from the country grows. Biya, who is 93, left Cameroon on June 7 for what the cabinet said was “a brief private stay in Europe” but speculation is mounting about his health. One opposition MP has asked the Constitutional Council to declare the presidency vacant. The ruling RDPC, which described its meeting only as “an important working session,” has insisted the state remains functional. Biya, in power since 1982, is Africa’s oldest president and its second longest-serving leader.

More from CNBC Africa here.

A father, his wife and their four children have been killed by an airstrike on their home in Gaza City, health officials said, in the latest Israeli violation of a ceasefire that Tel Aviv agreed with Hamas last October. The dead were named as Firas Al-Masri, his wife, Salsabeel, and ​their three daughters and son. Israel said it was targeting a Hamas member. Masri's father, Abu ​Yusuf Al-Masri, told Reuters: "We were unable to save our grandchildren and children from the flames and the devastation. Around five or six people were martyred, most of them children and women, without mercy and without any prior warning.” More than 1,150 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and more than 3,500 wounded since the ostensible ceasefire began.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 8 of the Proximities podcast, a discussion I had on the UK’s Novara Live show about the risk of the world standing by and watching another massacre unfold in Sudan, is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua's longtime president Daniel Ortega has said the country will not hold any more elections, ruling out the chance of a challenge when his latest term ends next year and underlining efforts to cement the rule he shares with his wife. Ortega was speaking on the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979. “There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said. “The days when parties backed by the Yankees (United States) and the Somocistas would return to power are over - never again.” Ortega has been president continuously since 2007 after a previous period as leader in the 1980s. The 80-year-old and his wife and co-president Rosario Murillo control almost every facet of government, including the military and judiciary.

More from AP here.

Guyana

Authorities in Guyana say they have now recovered 27 bodies from a ferry that capsized off the coast with 179 people on board in what the government called the country’s worst maritime disaster in decades. Officials said that 69 people had been rescued, while 83 remained missing, but it is believed that not all passengers were recorded in the ferry’s manifest, meaning the number of victims could be higher. Police said that the ferry’s captain and at least one other crew member had been taken into custody after testing positive for marijuana.

More from Al Jazeera here.

At least 50 Malian soldiers have been killed in an ambush by members of two rebel groups, officials said. The attack on the army convoy leaving the strategic town of Anefis was carried out by the Tuareg separatist FLA and the al Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), who have increasingly cooperated in their fight against the Mali’s military government. In April, the groups launched sweeping attacks across the country, seizing towns and villages and killing the defense minister. Mali had back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 as disquiet grew over the government’s inability to quell the insurgencies.

More from France 24 here.

Episode 8 of the Proximities podcast, a discussion I had on the UK’s Novara Live show about the risk of the world standing by and watching another massacre unfold in Sudan, is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

India

Police have fired tear gas at supporters of India’s youth-led Cockroach movement and attacked them with batons and canes as more than 10,000 demonstrators marched on parliament to demand the resignation of the education minister. The protest movement, whose Cockroach Janta Party name was chosen after the Supreme Court chief justice compared unemployed young people to “cockroaches,” emerged in May as anger grew over allegations of corruption and mismanagement in India’s exam system. The protests are the biggest public challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced in his third term.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Taiwan

Last month saw a sharp increase in Chinese coast guard and research vessel activity around Taiwan, according to Taiwan Coast Guard ​data, prompting Taipei to step up military drills. There were 55 sightings of Chinese government vessels around the island in June, the data showed, up from 30 in May. The sightings marked an 83 percent increase from May and a 120 percent rise from 25 sightings in June last year, underlining Beijing’s growing pressure campaign against the Taiwanese government. China views self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway region and has not ruled out the use of military force to capture it.

More from Reuters here.

The plight of Myanmar’s primarily Muslim Rohingya minority is, even by the standards of the material we cover in Proximities, severely under-reported.

More than one million members of the community are crammed into refugee camps in Bangladesh where they live in appalling conditions. Those who remain in Myanmar mostly live in Rakhine State, which, with Myanmar in the grip of a civil war, is controlled by one of the country’s many rebel groups.

They regularly try to escape, fleeing destitution in Bangladesh or war in Myanmar, risking their lives in rickety boats, often attempting to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia, where they believe they will be accepted but where they face growing discrimination. Some of the refugees also head for Indonesia.

It’s a bleak situation that deserves more attention.

A Q&A below.

Bests,

Barry

Episode 8 of the Proximities Podcast is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

How have a million Rohingya people ended up in Bangladesh?

Though the Rohingya had been persecuted for years, this crisis began in late 2016 when Myanmar’s military launched a massive assault against the group.

It’s hard to overstate how horrible it was.

Using the pretext of attacks by a newly formed Rohingya armed group on army posts along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in October 2016, during which nine border officers and four police were killed, Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, unleashed hell on civilians. I call it a pretext because the response was wildly disproportionate, and according to a Reuters investigation, a plan for purging the Rohingya had been drawn up by the Tatmadaw three years earlier.

In just the first two weeks, more than 75,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh.

But the campaign against the Rohingya escalated sharply in August 2017.

Attack helicopters fired on villages, unarmed civilians were summarily executed, entire settlements were burned to the ground and countless women were raped.

The onslaught did exactly what most people believe it was intended to do: send Rohingya people fleeing into Bangladesh. A staggering 750,000 crossed the border.

Now there are more than one million, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

The Tatmadaw, coldly and clinically, called it a “clearance” operation.

In 2018, a U.N. fact-finding mission published a report in which it concluded that genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes had taken place.

And in January, the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest court, began hearings in a genocide case against the government of Myanmar brought by Gambia on behalf of several other Muslim nations.

The camps must be huge

They are. The biggest in the world, in fact.

They’re overcrowded and living conditions are atrocious. And, almost a decade on from 2017, those conditions are deteriorating, not improving.

Read more

Episode 8 of the Proximities podcast is now live.

This week, it’s a little different.

I’ve republished a discussion I had on the UK’s Novara Live show, which I regularly co-host, about the potential for a massacre in the Sudanese city of el-Obeid.

Fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group have the city surrounded and are already pounding it with drone attacks.

And due to the siege, the prices of food and other goods have gone up and there are shortages of electricity and clean drinking water.

We’ve been here before. Last year, the RSF massacred upwards of 70,000 people in the city of el-Fasher. It was predicted and we let it happen.

We can’t do that again.

The conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Please do like, subscribe, comment or rate depending on your platform. It really does help the stories get out there.

All bests,

Barry.

An Israeli strike has killed eight Palestinians attending a funeral in Gaza for a person killed in an Israeli attack earlier in the day, health officials said. Three people were also killed in separate strikes on the enclave, bringing Friday’s death toll to 12. Israel said it targeted members of the Islamic Jihad armed group but that it was aware of reports “uninvolved” individuals were also killed. Israel has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 3,500 since an ostensible ceasefire was agreed in October, most of them women and children.

More from the New Arab here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Uganda

Uganda has banned school outings after 20 schoolchildren died in a bus crash on their way back from an educational field trip. One adult was also killed. The bus from King David Junior School was returning to the capital Kampala after a trip to Sipi Falls when the accident happened, police said. Ugandan government minister Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi said on X that more than 28 children were in hospital, nine of them in critical condition. Uganda’s roads are among the most dangerous in a region with the world’s worst traffic safety record.

More from Al Jazeera here.

China

Chinese President Xi Jinping today tried to position Beijing as the leader of a new AI world order in a clear challenge to U.S. influence over the quickly emerging technology. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Xi pitched China as a champion of open-source AI and pledged to help developing nations build AI capabilities. Though he didn’t mention Washington directly, Chinese State media has accused the U.S. of leading an attempt to erect what it calls an “AI Iron Curtain.”

More from Reuters here.

More than 500 people are feared dead after two large boats reportedly capsized off the coast of Myanmar since the end of June, two U.N. agencies said in a joint statement today. The vessels are believed to have been carrying people from Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority, escaping war in Rakhine state. Others are reported to have crossed into Myanmar from overcrowded camps for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to board the boats. More than one million Rohingya now live in refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar when its military launched a crackdown on the community in 2017 during which acts of genocide were committed, according to U.N. experts.

More from the Guardian here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Algeria

A fire at an orphanage in Algeria has killed 11 people, including children, according to emergency services and media reports. The blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning inside the Childhood Relief Institution, which provides shelter and support to orphans, abandoned minors and children with special needs. The Civil Protection Agency gave no details about the victims or their ages or the possible cause of the fire. Algeria has been in the grip of a severe heatwave in recent weeks, with firefighters battling almost 1,000 fires since July 8.

More from Al Jazeera here.

India

India has barred ship owners, managers and recruitment agencies from sending the country’s seafarers on vessels trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Two Indian seafarers have been killed in attacks on vessels in ​the Strait over the last three days, according to the government, and others have died previously. More than 15,000 Indian seafarers are still ​stranded west of the Strait, Manoj ​Yadav, ⁠general secretary of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, said. India is the world's third-largest supplier of seafarers, with more than 300,000 sailors working in global shipping fleets, according to Indian government data.

More from Reuters here.

A man, his wife and and their 6-year-old daughter have been killed in an airstrike on Gaza, Palestinian health officials said, in the latest Israeli violation of a ceasefire agreed with Hamas in October. Omar Abu Qassem, his wife, Asma, and their daughter, Habeeba, were killed in the attack on their apartment building, medics said. Their 3-year-old son, Sami, was the only survivor of the strike but was wounded. Israel said it had targeted a Hamas member. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,500 wounded since the ostensible ceasefire began, most of them women and children.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 7 of The Proximities Podcast is live. I spoke to investigative journalist Mohamed Gabobe about a U.S. drone strike in Somalia that killed 12 civilians, including eight children. But the U.S. military, which has been waging a covert war in Somalia for decades, will not admit that a single civilian was killed that day.

It’s on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

DR Congo

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has passed 2,000, according to government figures, as the fastest-growing outbreak in history continues to spread. The figures showed that 754 people have now died. On Tuesday, though, the U.N. health agency said the outbreak was much worse than official data suggests. "The scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found," WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu said. Efforts to fight the outbreak have been hampered by challenges, including the epicenter’s location in a conflict zone. Health workers at Bunia General Hospital walked off the job today in a dispute over pay, following staff members at other clinics who have done the same.

More from AP here.

Cuba

A power grid collapse left about 10 million people without power in Cuba as a continuing U.S. oil blockade worsened fuel shortages and piled pressure on the island’s power system. It was the third nationwide blackout in less than 10 days. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the blockade shortly after Washington’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela had long been Cuba’s main supplier of subsidized oil, and under U.S. pressure, Mexico also stopped shipping fuel to the island. Speaking at a U.N. debate last week, U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz blamed Cuba’s leaders for the blackouts. “Change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people,” he said.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Scientists at the University of Oxford in Britain have been cleared to begin human trials of a new vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has been spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for at least two months. Unlike the more common Zaire species, which has been responsible for most previous outbreaks, Bundibugyo has no approved vaccine. The vaccine has so far been tested on mice and macaque monkeys and around 620,000 doses have already been stockpiled in India by the world's largest vaccine manufacturer. The official death toll has now passed 600, according to the DRC health ministry, with the number of cases confirmed in laboratory tests standing at 1,792.

More from BBC here.

Episode 7 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, I spoke to investigative journalist Mohamed Gabobe about a U.S. drone strike in Somalia that killed 12 civilians, including eight children. But the U.S. military, which has been waging a covert war in Somalia for decades, will not admit that a single civilian was killed that day.

It’s on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Gaza

Eight people have been killed, including a 9-year-old girl, in an Israeli strike on Gaza, according to local health officials. Medical sources told the New Arab that Israeli fire targeted a refugee camp in central Gaza, killing the girl, named as Tala Abu Matar. Residents reported they then received phone calls from the Israeli military ordering them out of the area ahead of further strikes. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and another 3,507 wounded since an ostensible ceasefire began last October, most of them women and children.

More from the New Arab here.

Qatar

The influential former emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has died at 74. Sheikh Hamad is credited with transforming Qatar from a poor Bedouin society into a regional powerhouse. He leaned into liquefied ​natural gas production and turned the small nation into a serious diplomatic player through the development of the Al Jazeera television network, which earned Qatar significant soft power in the Arab world and beyond, and with a successful bid to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2022. Sheikh ​Hamad handed power to his son in 2013, in a rare abdication for a Gulf Arab hereditary monarch. Sheikh Hamad had himself overthrown his father in a bloodless coup in 1995.

More from Reuters here.